Oblivion-based fan game 'Nehrim' looks good enough to sell in shops

50 hours of gameplay? Voice actors? Who needs ESV?

Still waiting for some kind of confirmation that The Elder Scrolls V exists? This might just kerb your anxious shaking for a week or two. Some bright sparks in Germany have been making a brand new RPG using the mod tools that came with Oblivion. It's no slapdash effort - they've been slaving away since 2007 to create a game that provides as much gameplay as a full retail release. It's called Nehrim: At Fate's Edge and it looks like this...

Everything you see here has been created from scratch, reportedly using the modding tools that came with the PC version of the game when it launched. All of the scenery has been modelled by hand, so there's no procedural landscape generation here. And seeing as it uses the Oblivion game engine, the physics and animation is every bit as convincing as a full-price game.

The high level of quality doesn't stop at the graphics, either. Professional voice talent has been used to record the game's dialogue (which is, sadly, all in German with English subtitles available). There's also a levelling system that doesn't scale relatively with your enemies. So, unlike Oblivion, as you get stronger you'll actually... y'know, get stronger. In fact, it seems to answer a lot of the points we raised when we looked at what we want to see in Elder Scrolls V. We're sure Bethesda would take the series a step further still, but it's great to see what fan dedication can do.

Above: You can tell that the characters use the Oblivion engine straight away. Gorgeous mist effect, though

There are some 50 hours of gameplay to be had and the prospect of more content coming later on. So far the game doesn't have any conjuration magic, but it hasn't been ruled out completely just yet.

All you need to play Nehrim is the disc for the original The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Everything else can be downloaded from here. We haven't had a chance to play the new mod yet so we can't vouch for its quality (or security, let's make that clear). But if you have played it, let us know what you think of it in the comments.